Public Libraries

I started working in a public library in February of this year. Having worked on the academic side (as a student lackey) for two years I thought that it would be interesting to see the public side of libraries.

*Public Libraries are very very different.

I've had a few false starts here. Like the time a patron needed help finding information on Sea Turtles and my first instinct was to use ISI web of science. Needless to say an 8 year old girl does not need that in-depth of information.

I'll spare you the countless anecdotes that I've had thus far, but will say that working in a public library is nothing like I expected. I've had to help people with extremely basic uses of the computer (i.e. opening a browser) and how to use Word to write a resume. Reference librarians, generally, have a lot of education. I think that this fact can sometimes make us a bit sanctimonious about who we are and what we do, but it shouldn't. Librarians are here to serve the public and help people find information. While this comment might seem obvious I think it is something that we need to remember.